At What Cost Do Residents
Want To Be Warned Of Emergencies

The on-again, off-again plans for a citywide emergency warning system finally may be close to reality, as city council will look at three possible systems in the coming weeks.

Mayor Jamie Howey said he is anxious to find out which way council is leaning toward the three proposals, only two of which were recommended by B&C Communications. Howey said in the past, grants have been obtained to help pay for such a system, only to see the plans fall apart in the end.

When a dangerous situation arises, safety officials like to be able to warn as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. Emergency warning systems help police and fire officials to do just that, whether by siren or voice messages.

B&C communications has presented the city with three systems ranging in cost from $70,000 to $155,000. The communications company recommended either the least expensive or the most expensive warning system to Howey recently, who has since passed on that information to council.

Councilwoman Inell Keller, D-at-large, and chairwoman of the Public Safety Committee, said she is in the process of setting up a meeting with council to discuss whether grants would be available or not.

Grants would help offset the cost of purchasing and installing a system. Even the cheapest of the three proposals is not really cheap, especially when the cost of equipment is added to the price of installation.

Installing a system would involve placing six or seven, depending on the system, 60-foot poles around the city and attaching the sirens. That would cost between $4,000 and $7,000 a pole, Howey said.

The cheapest of the three systems is the Vortex 129DBC Siren by Whelen. The system would place six sirens throughout the city, but would not be able to broadcast voice messages.

The sirens rotate 360 degrees every 30 seconds to ensure all areas of the city are covered by the tone.

The most expensive system, the WPS-2800/9 Omni Voice and Siren, would have seven sirens placed throughout the city, and has voice capability. The sirens also broadcast in all directions at all times, so there is no rotating parts to worry about.

The siren is able to broadcast the tone or voice message throughout the city quicker than the models that have to broadcast four times, once in each direction.

Howey said that would be the ideal system, provided City Council wants to spend the extra money.

"When we have a special situation in one area of the city," Howey said, "we wouldn't need to (broadcast) over the entire town. We'd just use one or two."

Both Fire Chief Vic Haugh and Police Chief Steve Thornton support a voice capable system because, for them, presenting instructions along with a siren is very important.

"People wouldn't for sure know what to do," Haugh said. "They would only know that there is an emergency."

Thornton said a voice capable system also would make evacuations much easier, on the rare occasion they are needed.

"If we have an incident in a certain location, we could use it as a warning device and just to get information out," Thornton said. "If we're having a flooding problem in some areas of town, and we needed to evacuate - it would save us from going door to door. You would see a benefit in general notification capability."

The second system, one B&C did not recommend to the city, costs $105,000. It has voice capability, but does not broadcast in all directions at once. Instead, it must broadcast a tone or message four times; east, west, north and south.